Within the heart of every stray lies the singular desire to be loved! (love a stray today :) ) Welcome to the trappings of a curious and sometimes demented mind!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Kennedy backs Obama

Caroline Kennedy has come out in favor of BarackObama (NEW YORK (AP) - The daughter of President John F. Kennedy is endorsing Democratic presidential candidate BarackObama. Caroline Kennedy says Obama can inspire Americans in the same way her father once did.).

I'm thrilled to read this. I really like Obama and would like to see him as the next American President. Despite all the smear campaigns going on right now against him - with the Muslim thing getting national attention again - I just hope he overcomes and ppl see the true side to Hilary Clinton and what her camp is up to and that it's all lies.

It's really sad in this day and age that ppl can send out emails to the masses discussing his religious affiliations or upbringing and have it affect his campaign or possible seat in the White House. It's sad that it's looked down upon - his being raised by a Muslim father and not in this country - it's just really a shame that ppl, in this day and age, are still so shallow.

Ppl like to brag about how far America has come, has un-racist we are, but it's alive and well today... as evidenced by the ppl trying to smear Obama on such things.

I hope we can all rise above this... and who gives a damn if he is Muslim!!! Does that make him a bad person? No. I am married to a Muslim, I converted to Islam, our child is Muslim....

Unfortunately, if you mention the word "Muslim" to a lot of Americans they still only see images of 9/11 and people dancing in the streets in Jordan, Palestine and Iraq. Right-wing political and Christian fundamentalist groups have gone to a lot of trouble to try to get them to stay that way, too.

Funny how they don't seem to remember the TV images of people in Tehran, of all places, Muslims in traditional dress, holding candles and weeping after 9/11. Funny how they don't remember the outpourings of sympathy and even offers of support that came from throughout the Muslim world. It almost seemed like a perfect time for coming together in reconciliation.

Instead, we got Giuliani loudly demonizing (to much applause) a visiting prince from Saudi Arabia and forbidding him from visiting Ground Zero simply because the prince had said U.S. policies had been partly to blame for the attack. We had President Bush saying arrogantly to the nations of the world, "You are either with us or against us." And then the books and speeches demonizing Islam began to multiply.

In my college days I had Islam explained to me by a friend who happened to be an Iranian woman who fully supported Ayatollah Khomeini and insisted that we have at least one other person in the room with us at all times (so as not to break Islamic custom). I hung out with the international crowd, and many of them were Pakistani, Egyptian, Lebanese, Saudi, and Indonesian Muslims. (Ironically, the only ones who had a problem with that were some of the die-hard Christians who lived in my co-op house.) I have never seen Islam itself as an enemy, and I have long known Muslims as friends.

Unfortunately, in troubled times people seek comfort in easy answers. It's far simpler and self-assuring to say, "Them people with towels on their heads is bad," than it is to say, "There are dangerous, fanatical Muslims just as there are dangerous, fanatical Christians, Jews, Hindu, etc., but they are the minority." Politicians understand this very well, and that is why they almost always have some sort of "demon" to fight so the people will stay loyal.

We can dream of a perfect world. Hopefully someday someone will make one. For now, however, we're stuck with the one we've got now, and all we can do is hope to make a difference, no matter how tiny.

I like Obama too, much more than Hillary. He'd have the global outlook needed to keep America relevant this global environment we live in. He seems to have one foot in two or three worlds.

In this respect, America is ahead of the UK and even much of Europe in that a non-white is running for the highest office in the land. In fact, so are many of the positions such as Secretary of [whatever] (Colin Powell, Condy Rice, Norm Mineta, Elaine Chao). Even Donna Shalala is the daughter of Lebanese immigrants. I doubt there is a minority Minister of anything over here. Still very British grey-haired white men and middle aged white women.

As for discrimination against Islam: It's like school, another case of the majority suffering because of the minority.

If only bad people were slightly larger than good people, and we had a giant sieve. The good ones would fall out together and the bad ones would stay in the sieve...

But life is not so simple and so another saying to apply here can be "it's better to be safe than sorry".

Because the thing is, of course, Islam like the others, on paper, is a peaceful religion. Unfortunately, the few who distort that truth are the ones who control our perceptions.

Did you convert to Islam out of conviction or for the sake of your marriage? I was born into a muslim family but am now atheist. I live in the UK. According to opinion polls, over 30% of the British muslim population thinks I deserve to die for leaving Islam. What does your husband, and other Bahrainis, think of apostates like me?

I heard recently that Obama made a statement saying, "I'm not Muslim!"

..and I'm randomly checked too at the airports in the U.S. I'm caucasian and American, yet that last name that starts with 'Al-' is a hum-dinger for sure. I just say, "I'm marked with sssss - for super super super super special!"

ex muslim, i'll respond to your post real quick coz we're about to go on a drive. i'll write more to you later. i converted to islam because, at the time, i felt it was the right choice. i had been studying it in the states and thought it was a very peaceful religion. mind you, i'm not a religious person... i'm spiritual but don't really believe in organized religion.

so... when i moved to bahrain, it became more for the marriage than for my own wants and desires... but i still did it.

it was after that time, and starting to work for the govt, and being around many different types of muslims that i started to see the bad sides to things. even w/ ppl that said they were highly religious, praying 5 times a day and such, made me see that maybe i had made a wrong decision.

so... i'm back to being spiritual and not so much religious.

as far as the other stuff... i'll write more on it later. gotta catch this afternoon sun and make our way up the mountains!! :)

I don't know that the problem was so much that they thin he's Muslim. I think it's that they think that he is a Muslim who is pretending that he isn't so that he can get into ofice and then TAKE OVER THE WORLD FOR ISLAM!!! lol

He isn't a Muslim, never was a Muslim, was not raised by Muslims, his father was no more Muslim than umNaief and even he died when Obama was very young. His grandfather in Kenya was back and forth between being Muslim and Christian but Obama didn't have a whole lot to do with him anyway. He was mainly raised by his white Christian grandmother in Hawaii while his mother did her diplomat job wherever.

The ridiculous thing is that a lot of people won't vote for him because they believe that he is hiding some Muslim-ness but even more ridiculous will be those that vote for him because they believe that he is Muslim!

The Followers

Who am I?

I'm a girl living in Bahrain, under the all too watchful eyes of her in-laws, begging for a breath to speak/write it all down.... and I have a beautiful boy that will soon be 3... he's the only thing that keeps me 'almost' sane..... that and happiness that flutters like a butterfly... a beautiful red, black and gold one.... too quick to catch.